Which 1 Past Business Decision Would You Change?

[jimntx]

no ceo nor president should have been hired since 1992...

[post="281525"][/post]​

WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

[OTslave]

If there was 1 business decision made from the folks at CCY since 1979 what would it be?

Mine would definately have to be to keep the PSA product intact and remain in the West Coast markets. Had they done that, as well as kept the Piedmont product intact on the East Coast, the entire domestic airline industry might be different.

[post="281509"][/post]​

How can you pick just ONE ?

 

[noname]

How can you pick just ONE ?

[post="281588"][/post]​

I agree with you. Ask 100 U employees and you will get 100 different answers. The 100 would agree that there have been multitudes of ill-fated business decisions made. I only know of the past 16 years after PI/U merger. Could've, would've, should've done many, many things differently. What a legacy............

 

[700UW]

Here are a few:

Colodny’s Blunders:

· Mirror Image, imposing US Air’s business methods upon Piedmont and PSA, instead of looking at each respective airline and adapting their successful practices. Some examples would be dismantling of the Piedmont Shuttle which accounted for 32% of Piedmont’s Gross Revenue.

· Not furthering International Service and canceling the last three 767s on order from Boeing, then realizing how much money was made serving international destinations and paying Boeing a $30 million penalty to reorder the three planes.

Schofield’s Blunders:

· Business select, $50 million on wasted seats that never worked properly and we eventually removed from the 737-200 fleet. Operation Highground.

· The IAM Mechanic and Related Strike of 1992 in which US Air lost $35 million and agreeing to pay all the pilots during our strike regardless if they flew or not.

· The hiring of Joe Gorman from United Airlines. Gorman stayed a few months then went right back to United, then United started taking us on head to head in numerous markets where we did not compete before Gorman’s tenure.

· The alliance with British Airways to infuse quick cash, but not on favorable terms to US Air, BA got more out of the alliance then we did.

Wolf and Gangwal:

· Canceling all the Boeing orders and having to pay a substantial penalty to Boeing to this day the dollar amount is not known as it was a confidential out of court settlement after Boeing sued US Airways, but it is believed to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

· Closing of three maintenance bases and trying to accomplish all the work in just three bases, which caused a backlog of airplanes awaiting “Q†and “C†checks and Mod visits. At one point you could see numerous airplanes parked in Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Tampa awaiting maintenance.

· Buying back over $1.5 billon of US Airways stock instead of using the money as operating capital or paying down debt or just having it around for a downturn.

· Selling the company to United Airlines and then for the next 14 months having no direction and running the company into the ground.

· Overreacting to the September 11th tragedy and shrinking the airline by 23% and increasing costs by putting larger airplanes on shorter routes.

 

[twoturnin]

Excellent 700UW and Hope777

 

[Old PSA]

For me, the worst was Colodny's arrogance which permeated the entire USAir mentality prior to the mergers and after even when it became apparent to everyone else that USAir was failing.

PSA and Piedmont both had stronger operations. PSA had a much, much lower operating cost basis. Piedmont had a loyal customer base and good name. USAir had high operating cost and "Air Agony" name. The only thing that saved USAir was that its competition was worse then they were. If a Southwest/JetBlue airline had started in the Northeast right after de-regulation, US Airways would never had happened. The future for PSA and Piedmont might have been interesting.

 

[bigman60]

People Express started in the NE right after deregulation.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I would say showing Gordon the door after the PI merger. My second would be Mirror IMAGE, the USAir way or the Highway. None of the PSA or PI good was ever accepted by U Management.

[post="281537"][/post]​

I agree. The #1 screw-up was Ed Colodny giving Gordon Bethune the boot in favor of Seth "Deer-in-the-headlights" Schofield. I cannot imagine how huge this place would be if Bethune had taken the helm when Colodny retired.

 

[Hope777]

Yes PE started up after Deregulation. Interesting was the fact that Piedmont went head to head with PE and was winning the battle. Piedmont had a VERY LARGE cutomer base in EWR. PI ran over 100 Jet and 125 PI Connection Flights Daily from EWR. At Merge time with U, we were well over 300 daily flights and a power house in EWR. Then Management decided they would make a SWEET HEART deal with CO whom had purchased PE. U would buy the New Terminal at LGA which CO got from the Eastern mess, and scaled back EWR operations. U Management thought LGA and PHL were much more important. Well, Gordon getting the Boot, thought differently and we all know who got the best of that deal. CO is one of the top 10 employers in the state of New Jersey, has a great Hub and we are now in our second BK in the last few years.

 

[markkus757]

I would say that they should have found a way to get along with BA. At that time they did not have a substantial transatlantic product. They could have just fed into BA instead of expanding places like PHL where they have too much invested and are not flexible enough to adapt to the changing environments. I don't think they get enough international "help" from Star Alliance to make it worthwhile. US needs to differentiate their product. International destinations and how you get there on US metal helps.

 

[Old PSA]

Concerning Peoples Express, started out with a bang and imploded quickly, from over expansion and mgmt. loss of control. They proved there was a market there but they weren't the one.

 

[Pylit]

The number one bone-headed mistake was:
Buying back over $1.5 billon of US Airways stock instead of using the money as operating capital or paying down debt or just having it around for a downturn.
this could have prevented us from filing c11 the first time.

 

[fatherabraham]

PSA purchase and subsequent pullout from said market

 

[PITbull]

Yes PE started up after Deregulation.  Interesting was the fact that Piedmont went head to head with PE and was winning the battle.  Piedmont had a VERY LARGE cutomer base in EWR.  PI ran over 100 Jet and 125 PI Connection Flights Daily from EWR.  At Merge time with U, we were well over 300 daily flights and a power house in EWR.  Then Management decided they would make a SWEET HEART deal with CO whom had purchased PE.  U would buy the New Terminal at LGA which CO got from the Eastern mess, and scaled back EWR operations.  U Management thought LGA and PHL were much more important. Well, Gordon getting the Boot, thought differently and we all know who got the best of that deal.  CO is one of the top 10 employers in the state of New Jersey, has a great Hub and we are now in our second BK in the last few years.

[post="281685"][/post]​

If I'm not mistaken, PI was put up "for sale" by its parent company. So, if US Air didn't buy them, then I'm sure someone would have.

 

[robbedagain]

I thoguht that the Norfolk Southern Railroad owned PI and Carl Ichan wanted to have some control of it but U stepped in and brought it for some millions?